Chicagoland… and around the world

SkyRise 2015

This is the 7th year that Catherine and I have been lucky enough to be the official photographers for SkyRise, the tower climb that benefits the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This past Sunday morning, thousands of people walked or ran up the 103 flights of the Willis Tower in Chicago. It’s a unique fundraiser that always has a few dozen inspirational stories throughout the day. Along with all the regular participants there are many current and former patients that do the climb, including Senator Mark Kirk. There are also teams of firefighters that walk all the way to the top wearing all their gear to honor the responders that died during 9-11. SkyRise is a difficult thing to photograph from a technical perspective. The harsh morning sun shines in at the finish line on the top floor. That blinding light is contrasted with the dark stairwells. If you’re a photographer, imagine how hard it is to capture good images of hot sweaty people quickly moving past you in cramped, concrete stairs. It helps to have a very wide lens, and I bounce my flash up backwards behind my head, using the walls to light up the tight area. RIC is one of our favorite institutions and we’re proud to have been working with them for so many years. I want to send a big thank you to our friend and photographer, Sabina Cavalli who joined us again this year. Catherine’s brother Paul was also in town and came along to help carry gear and run errands.